Training a new generation of nuclear scientists and engineers

Tuesday 16 October 2012

Share

For Vladimir Mozin, the 2008 launch of the UC Laboratory Fees
Research Program couldn’t have happened at a better time. A graduate student in
nuclear engineering at UC Berkeley, his research focused on detecting
radioactive fissile material — whether in
spent nuclear fuel assemblies or sequestered in a ship cargo container.

The program allowed him to work with nuclear engineers at Berkeley, and for the last two years of his graduate studies, at Los Alamos National
Laboratory to refine new detection strategies.

He completed his graduate work with support of the program and
parlayed his expertise into a permanent position as a staff researcher at Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory. Now, he's been asked to review applications from
graduate students for new rounds of research grants in the lab
fees program.

“Vladimir’s experience really highlights the value of the
program,” said Jasmina Vujic, professor of nuclear engineering at UC Berkeley
and director of the UC Berkeley Nuclear Research Center, which was established
with support from the UC Lab Fees Research Grant program.

Detection is difficult, Mozin said, because relatively weak
signals from gamma rays and neutrons can be screened or masked.

“We need instruments that are able to detect weak signals,
but ideally, without interrupting or physically interfering with commercial
operations," he said.

He worked on methods for non-intrusive investigations of
“targets of interest” The target is irradiated by beams of neutrons or photons
that induce fissions in fissile materials. The material then emits
characteristic signals that can be picked up by specially developed systems.

Some unlikely radiation sources could interfere with
detection of contraband material, Mozin says. “Without very sensitive
measurements, we could miss a suspect source of nuclear material packed in a
crate of bananas — or even kitty litter. Both emit low
levels of gamma radiation.”

The first round of UC lab fees grants helped scientists
track other vital resources that can hide in plain site, including one of
planet’s most valuable commodities: water.

To a large degree, winter snows hold the fate of the
multi-billion-dollar California agriculture industry, as well as the water
supply for rivers and cities downstream. But accurately measuring the
volume of the winter snowpack and the likely timing of its release continues to
frustrate water engineers and resource planners.

Soroosh Sorooshian, director of UC Irvine’s Center for
Hyrdometeorology and Remote Sensing, and his colleagues Xiagang Gao and Wei Chu
work with state water agencies, NASA and the Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory to squeeze more accurate snowpack measurements and information out
of images from satellites.

One of their former graduate students, Qing Xia, recently
earned his doctorate in civil and environmental engineering for UC Lab Fees-funded research, essentially helping engineers
fill in some of the blanks in satellite images caused by cloud cover and other
atmospheric conditions.

Xia’s computations yield muchmore accurate assessments of the boundaries of snowpack and their
variation rates, improving estimates of the winter’s snow volume, and so,
spring’s water supply.

“The interactions and input provided by the
technical staff of the California Department of Water Resources was invaluable
and ensured that the outcome of the work will be relevant to practical state
water resources issues. This was a truly joint activity. I give it high marks
for that.”